Intel to announce quad-core mobile Core i7 chips tomorrow

IDF Intel will formally announce its 'Clarksfield' mobile Core i7 processor tomorrow ahead of the appearance of notebooks based on the chip family in October.

The Nehalem-derived Clarksfield forms the basis of 'Calpella', Intel's next major laptop platform, which will also debut early next month. Calpella's other key component is the PM55 chipset, codenamed 'Ibex Peak M'.

Expect Intel to announce three mobile Core i7s: two mainstream parts and an Extreme-branded gamer-centric part. The first two are the 1.6GHz 720QM and the 1.73GHz 820QM, channel sources told Register Hardware today. They'll be accompanied by the 2GHz 920XM Extreme.

They're all quad-core, HyperThreading-enabled chips with 256KB of L2 per core and either 8MB of L3 - the 820QM and 920XM - or 6MB of L3 - the 720QM. They support 1333MHz DDR 3 memory.

The QMs consume up to 45W, the XM 55W.

The initial releases will be 45nm chips - 32nm versions will debut in Q2 2010. ®